10 A Catholic organisation has set up a website – popealarm.com – that promises to send users a text when a new pontiff is selected.

9 The conclave to elect a new pope follows a set ritual every day until a new leader of the Catholic Church is chosen, with hours set aside for prayer before voting takes place. After three days of voting the cardinals take a break of a day for reflection before resuming for another three days.

8 The famous white smoke that signals a new pope has been elected is accompanied by a bell ringing at St Peter’s Basilica. The identity of the new Pope is only revealed when he steps on to the balcony.

A nun prays in front of the St Peter’s Basilica (Picture: EPA)

7 All of the 115 cardinals choosing the next Pope were chosen by either Benedict XVI or John Paul II. Sixty electors are from Europe – 28 of which are Italian – but none are from the UK after the resignation of Keith O’Brien.

6 In 1958, Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary missed the vote as he was seeking asylum in the US embassy in Budapest, while his Yugoslavian counterpart Alojzije Stepinac was under house arrest.

5 It took eight ballots and three days to elect Karol Wojtyla (John Paul II) in 1978, but only four ballots over two days for his successor Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI).

4 The Vatican has already seemingly taken steps designed at making people forget the last Pope, with no public appearances since his farewell blessing at the end of last month. The tweets on the official @pontifex account have also been deleted, although they have been archived on the Holy See’s website.

3 The longest conclave on record was 33 months, in 1268, when Gregory X was elected Pope, but not before residents of Viterbo, north of Rome, tore the roof off the building where the cardinals were staying and restricted their meals to bread and water to make them hurry up. In the past century, no conclave has lasted more than five days.

2 Since 1274 the Vatican has waited at least ten days since the death of the Pope until a vote to replace him, with the gap later increased to 15 days to allow cardinals to travel to Rome.

1 The youngest-ever pontiff was Pope John XII, who was just 18 when he was elected in 955. In comparison, Pope Celestine III (elected in 1191) and Celestine V (elected in 1294) were both nearly 85.